


Wings

by Zalk909192



Series: AfuHiru Month 2019 [2]
Category: Eyeshield 21, Inazuma Eleven
Genre: #Let's mett the witch, AfuHiruMonth2019, Desert, Distopic, Inspired by a chinese tag on twitter, M/M, Mysticism, or something like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 04:57:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20303830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zalk909192/pseuds/Zalk909192
Summary: I was born on the lowest branch of the Tree, in a nest full of eggs.The rules wanted that only the Hatchlings who could spread their wings and fly on top were worth living.When the egg hatches you are pretty much like a human child already. Even without experiences, you have your own instinct to follow and normally the 100% of the Hatchlings fly in a matter of two or three days.Well, I've been there for a whole year.And when I reach the top, it was by climbing.





	Wings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadyNobody](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyNobody/gifts).

> This is the AfuHiru Month and to write all of this in less than 24 hours. Dudes. A nightmare.  
But I love them anyway.  
Here's the list of prompt, if you want to try, you can!  
[Prompt List](https://inazumafocus.tumblr.com/post/187075629270/afurohiruma-month-prompts-from-the-17th-of)

  
I was born in a place you can call strange, by your perspective.  
A place where the ground is too far to be reached and all you can see is the sky under and above you.  
The tallest tree you'll ever see in your life is there, with its fronds that keep nests full of winged being.  
Call them harpies, if you want, they call themselves Aellis.  
They are like the myth you already know: half-human, half-birds.  
Huge wings instead of arms and hands, claws instead of feet, feathers to keep them warm at night, and a head very human-like.  
This race has forgotten the Ground after the Earth collapsed with the Huge Flood.  
A lot of the elders still brag about the Ancients, but every Aellis knows deep inside that it's just a fairy tale;  
ugly and weak wingless disgusting beings, with their nose stuck where the world ends, at the bottom of the Tree trunk.  
Always assuming, of course, that the Tree has actually an end.  
Nobody with some brain under his own scalp could believe in the existence of something so gross and absurd, right?  
The Aellis are proud and fierce animals. They have a superior intellect but without any reasons to actually use it.  
Their life is divided into eating leaves and telling stories.  
All-day long, for all their life, in eternity.

I was born on the lowest branch of the Tree, in a nest full of eggs.  
The rules wanted that only the Hatchlings who could spread their wings and fly on top were worth living.  
When the egg hatches you are pretty much like a human child already. Even without experiences, you have your instinct to follow and normally the 100% of the Hatchlings fly in a matter of two or three days.  
Well, I've been there for a whole year.  
And when I reach the top, it was by climbing.

When I reach the platform up in the clouds the sight made me uncomfortable.  
In all my life I've never seen the same level of horror and doom spreading in a group of people.  
Climbing? Nonsense, of course.  
And in fact, it took me one year to fight my instinct and use some logic.  
Then it took me seven months to reach my mother.  
She wasn't very happy to see me, because she was pretty sure I was dead and if your chicken dies in the hatching, since it's so rare, you have some vantages in the society. And I was there, climbing, to take them away from her and to bring shame on her name, which, by the way, I've ever known.  
Of course, what else could it be?

I couldn't even speak, nor understand what the elder was saying. I remember just some fragment I don't want to repeat.  
Suddenly, one of the flock grabbed me and after some vertical flying, he simply dropped me.  
Still, I don't know why he did it. Maybe to see if I can fly, maybe it was simply a murder attempt.  
The falling was atrocious. I passed out and when I was awake again, I was alone again, in an empty nest with a useless and now hurtful and broken wing.  
I climbed. Again. Like a fool who wanted only some company after two years of living in solitude.  
They were annoyed, but in silence, they let me stick around the flock.  
I learned to speak and to tell a story hearing them.  
The only thing I'm glad they did to me was to let me listen.  
After some time I was so alone that I knew inside me I had only two options: staying and suffer in a nest made of loneliness, contempt and suicidal thoughts, or stop aiming to the top and descend.  
By all means, the second option was a better option. I was going to be dead soon anyway.  
I knew that there wasn't a Ground. I knew the Ancients were a silly fantasy to scare the chicken at night.  
But I was a chicken and I didn't fear a myth. I feared my reality so much more.  
I descended.  
I descended with a pair of broken wings and no hope.  
It is the best decision I've ever made.

__

The descending was easier than the raising, but even more dangerous.  
Since I couldn't fly at all, I could just jump branch to branch hoping that my only moving wing was strong enough to deaden my falling until the next point.  
I still have vertigo. A harpy that suffer from vertigo, like "harpy who can't fly" wasn't enough.  
The Tree seemed with no end, I was alone again, but-  
Long story short, the Ground exists.  
Ancients exist.  
And like the Aellis, the Ancients see the Tree like a god.  
In a desolate land, an endless desert made of sand and colorful stones, the Tree is the only water supply for the Ancients, since his roots are superficial and if you cut them, the purest water will flow out of the wounds.  
Around the Tree there are three different villages, with three different cultures: the northern, called Estrelas, the eastern, called Sol, and the southern, called Penumbra.  
Penumbra is the nearest to the three, the richest one, with gardens and fountains in its squares. The people of Penumbra are the most fanatic when it comes to religious stuff;  
Estrelas is the kindest one, its population likes to avoid conflicts and they are grateful to have only one superficial root to harvest because that is right enough for their needs;  
at last, Sol. It is the biggest one, most of it is poor and with no roots, and their inhabitants usually come to collect water in the night, under the stars that they loved. Still, they are envious people by nature and they usually sleep during the day.  
The equilibrium of the three was granted by the presence of a common god;  
The Tree, of course.  
But what they saw me the first time, everything was suddenly tense.  
If the Tree is their god, I must be his spokesman.  
Fun fact: Aellis and Humans speak different languages.  
You've seen it coming, eh?  
I know. My life is a joke.

And the most important thing was; who had the right to... keep me?

The first human I saw was a child of the Estrellas village. He was so scared of me he started to scream and he ran away like bats out of hell.  
I was so tired, so scared and so in discomfort that the only thought I had; "I can't believe that everything is so fixed and stable."  
The Ground is a terrifying place, after a life swinging between flexible branch-  
I vomited. A lot.  
Then I was knocked out by the uncomfortable feeling of stability.  
When I woke up I was in the middle of a shouting crowd, but I was faster to pass out again.  
When I woke up for the second time, I was in a room -you have no idea what is like to be in an enclosed space for the first time, you have no idea how terrifying is not being able to look at the sky for the first time- full of white, lightweight and quiet curtains.  
I refused to have another panic attack.  
I was safe enough, I wasn't hurt, I had still myself.  
With my only moving wig-  
(recap: I've never been able to fly, but one wig was broken after the murder attempt, do you remember, right?)  
-I removed the curtains and I saw a young woman.  
She has a normal face, normal hair. His legs and wings? Impressive.  
They were exactly how I imagined an Ancient would have.  
She was pretty, but monstrous at the same time.  
She was clearly angry at a man, who was so much taller than her and a lot muscular, and I recognize a word in their talking: "Aellis".They were talking about me. They seemed to be important people. The man had a crown, so he was really important for sure.  
She had nothing like that, but she was sitting on a nice chair, the nicest chair in the room, actually, so I guessed it was like the stool of the narrator for the Aellis.  
I wasn't so far from the truth.  
Agon Kong was the king of Estrelas and Mamori Anezaki was the High Priestess of Penumbra. There was another man I haven't noticed in the corner of the room and he was Gen Takekura, the Spokesman of Sol.  
They were talking about my purpose and the role I would have in their world.  
Agon wanted me to bring glory to his village and to have the favor of the god, so he told, but the real intention was to take some power from Penumbra.  
Penumbra was terrified to lose his Holy Prophet. Mamori was at the verge of tears talking to Agon. Her fear comes to prejudice towards Estrelas people. There was a rumor about how much they love the stars, even more than... you know. The Tree.  
It was blasphemy and Mamori feared they could not treat me well enough.  
She was trembling because Agon was right; one of the Estrelas villages saw me first, so technically I should be their right to keep me.  
Gen Takekura, by the way, was there only because that was an official meeting but he had no interest in me.  
Still, he was the first to see me.  
He cleared his throat and pointed out at me.  
Mamori covered his mouth with her hands. Agon seemed ready to fight and Gen stayed still.  
I was confused.  
I glanced at the Agon's sword, his hand was on the hilt, I've never seen anything like that. But I could smell the danger.  
And the same thing went for the arch and arrows of Gen.  
So, I looked Mamori in the eyes and I suddenly realized that if I couldn't understand them, they could not understand me.  
Anyway.  
I advanced, just a few steps freeing myself from the curtains.  
I was like a human 11 years old with a lot of feathers, two meters of black wings, long crooked legs with huge claws at the end, blonde short spiky hair, and vivid blue eyes. Completely otherworldly. They really were mesmerized by my presence, now that I can think about it with clarity of mind.  
I spoke in my only language, just because it was stupid being seen and not say anything at all.  
Ah- it was my first time talking to someone and I choose to look at Mamori since she was unharmed.  
I moved the useless -but not broken- wing in a formal greeting, similar to a bow without a bow. Just with the wing. Get along with it.

« It's an honor to meet you. »

Well, it was a wise choice said something appropriated because what happened next was totally unexpected.  
Mamori was instantly pale more than a full moon, she trembled more and a second later she was on her knees.  
And like it was nothing, she talked to me.

« The honor is ours. Please, Holy Aellis. Tell us what's your purpose on this land. Are you here for the Great End? Another Flood is expecting us? »

In my mother tongue.  
And I had no idea what she was talking about. At all.  
I remember it was embarrassing.  
I froze for a moment, trying to decide what to do. I could have lied. I could have told them that I was the prophet of the Tree with a steady voice and that they had to treat me well until my death, who coincidentally should have happened the same day of the next Huge Flood.  
Wait. This is actually a good idea. Why I didn't think about it?  
But I was young and naive. A pity, really a pity.

« I'm sorry, I know nothing about it. You ask me my purpose, but- I think my purpose is to don't die alone. »

Something distracted me. The sky. In a hole in that solid nest. I ignored all of them and went by it to breath better.

« How do you know my tongue? What's your name? »

Clearly, the other couldn't understand a word. Agon and Gen had the most beautiful and pissed face I've ever seen, it's one of my favorite memories.

« This is the holy language. The language of God. Only the Tree, their sons, and the High Priests know it. And my name- I don't know if I should... I'm the High Priestess of Penumbra. »

« Ah. So you don't have a name? »

« No, I- »

Oh god, I was an obnoxious brat.

« Tell me. »

Well, as a High Priestess, Mamori had lost her name a long time before, but if a Holy Aellis was asking, even in front of the other chiefs...

« Mamori. My lost name is Mamori. Can I ask your name, Aellis? »

I remember I smiled. It was also the first being that actually greets me.

« I don't have one. Can you choose one for me? Please? »

I smiled again, with real joy in the eyes.  
And she decided to follow the flow because if she had stopped to think for a second, she would have passed out for sure. She was looking at me so incredulous.

« Yoichi, it means "the bewitching one". Oh- I- I'm sorry, I choose a name in the modern tongue, I should have- »

« I like it! Yoichi! Yoichi is my name! »

I laughed and my heart was so full, so free. I had a name. A real one.  
I started crying without knowing and then I was on the floor, like the lonely child I was.  
Mamori came to me, she dared to touch my face in the most delicate way possible.  
It was too much.  
And I passed out again.  
But I had a name and I still have it.  
It's the most precious gift somebody could have given to me.

__

Mamori is a clever girl.  
Knowing the other two had no clue about our conversation, she made up a story about me and my needs and in front of what his own eyes could saw, Agon had to give up.  
I had to stay there, no other questions needed.  
She taught me everything.  
Modern language, history, geography, myth, religion, stories.  
She taught me how to deal with slaves, servants, priests, chiefs. Properly, like the god they think I was.  
Everything was new.  
Everybody was nice to me.  
But I was missing something.  
My instinct struck back.  
Time passed, a doctor and a priest even fixed the broken wing and since I could even move both of them. That was a miracle.  
Still, I was missing something.  
Years later, I was in my prime, only one thing obsessed me at the point I wasn't able to eat, nor sleep.  
The flight. The one I've never had.  
I needed to fly to find the One.

Aellis live like animals, they don't have modesty or shame, but they must love to be at ease.  
They have to love one single being with all their heart for all their life to be complete.  
And I was in my prime and I needed it to live, to breath, to feel.  
I was suffering from vertigo, of course, by my nature was inevitable... I had to find a mate.  
I asked to Mamori. I constantly ask her if she knew a way, for me, to be in the sky.  
She never answered, but she understood my nature and my needs and she was suffering with me, in silence.  
Agon and Gen, too, understood I was not okay at all. The four of us were really good friends, at some point.  
I love them, of course, but it wasn't enough.  
Time passed and I was in despair.  
I was lonely.  
I felt solitude again.  
It was unbearable.  
I was 19, at least. I was thinner than I should have been, but my features were like the day of my falling.  
Anyway, Mamori was done.  
Seeing her personal god and friend suffer like that was too much for her and she chooses to help in every way possible and so Gen and Agon did.  
One night, she opened the curtains of my room and she told me with really sad, but excited, eyes to take my cloak and be quiet.  
I followed her until a carriage.  
Then, everything was too fast for a while.  
She hugged me, she was crying, I said she was a crybaby and she kissed my forehead telling me to be a good boy.  
I didn't understand, I didn't have words. I didn't understand what was happening.  
Inside, I saw my most precious friend after her.  
Agon was there with his sword. For years I asked, for fun, to let me have it and he- that night, he gave it to me.  
I don't remember what he told me, but I remember I asked what was going on.  
And I remember his words.  
"We sold you for your own happiness."

_

The trip was the longest I've ever done since my falling.  
It was exciting, even if both Agon and Gen didn't want to tell me what we were doing or where we were going.  
I accepted my faith, anyway.  
I was asleep when everything stopped and I woke up. I was frail, weak, the tremors of the ride were insane and I refused to eat. I was on the 13th of self-starvation.  
Yes, my body was tired to suffer and I was starting to die, no biggie, went there and did that already when I was a chicken, remember?  
Agon took me in his arms and I strengthened my grip on his sword.  
I saw the entrance of a cave, rocks covered in sand.  
The Witch in the Cave. It was a story for children. Far away from Penumbra, a witch lives in a cave and eat the bad children who don't listen to their parents.

« ...the witch exists? »

I whispered in the night and nobody said a word, then I fell asleep for the fatigue.

_

Funny how every new plot twist of my life starts with an awakening in a new place.  
That time wasn't different from the last one.  
I woke up and I stared at a ceiling I've never seen. No curtains. But a nice smell in the smoky air that surrounded me.  
I moved a little and a voice...

« Don't move, you are dying. »

« See if I care at this point. »

I hissed with my eyes closed.  
That voice was... nice. Even if I were not inclined to see some obvious remarks about my situation, it sounded sweet in my ears.

« I care. I was waiting for you. »

The voice was still so sweet, so caring.  
I tried to open my eyes but the owner of the voice threw some kind of fabric on my face because I couldn't open my eyes at all.  
I was too weak to move.

« Where are Agon and Gen? »

« Safe. Almost home, I suppose. Drink. »

A soft hand was under my head and I smelled a strangely familiar scent.  
I know, now, that scent was the scent of home.  
I drank from a bowl placed in front of me and I remembered the leaves of the Tree. Not the leaves drifting down from the sky, but the leaves that were still at their place, on the Tree.

« How- how do you have the leaves? »

« All in due time, Yoichi. »

I drank again. I sensed a drop of water on my chin. Maybe in the cave there was some infiltration of the roots.  
Then I fell asleep again, against my will.

_

I can't remember how many days went by, at that point.  
Maybe a week, maybe more.  
All I know is that I was slowly feeling better.  
I had the fabric over my eyes most of the time, but I had the nice voice to ease my suffering and alleviate my boredom.  
It was working. It shouldn't, but it was working for real.  
The voice told me I was weak for not eating in the right way for years, not only for the absence of his mate.  
It told me that the absence of the mate is an unbearable pain but it isn't deadly at all; in fact, when you suffer for the Absence, you stop aging until you find the one.  
One day I asked why I had to stay with my eyes closed and why I couldn't know his name.  
He smiled. I know he smiled, at the time.

« Because your body is not ready. »

I started to ask if I was ready, every day.  
Obnoxious.

_

At last, his answer was "yes".  
My heart skipped a beat.  
I was strong, at that point. I knew I could move and I finally did.  
I removed the fabric, still with my eyes closed I just sit and I stretched my wings a bit with a crooked smile.  
Then, I opened them and-  
No words can describe that sensation.  
No words can explain my tears, my feeling at that moment.  
In front of me there was the one. My only one. My mate. My ally. My love.  
He was standing in the middle of the cave and he was so beautiful I couldn't stand the sight.  
I clutched my head for a moment, I closed my eyes.  
I looked at him again.  
His red eyes, his blonde hair, he was the one I was ready to be devoted to.  
I didn't care about other details.  
The second after, I was there to hug him with my wings.  
I had closed my eyes again and I was crying, smelling his scent and caressing him with my head.

« My name is Terumi. »

Just a whisper in my ears and I took some space to look into his beautiful eyes.

« I love you. »

« I know. »

« How this thing works? »

« I'm not sure, but I- I love you too. »

My heart still hurts after all this time, if I think about it.  
The joy was unbearable just like the pain.  
It's crazy, I love him in the same way even now.  
But at that time, I just kissed him and everything was perfect.  
Until I realize something.  
After the first kiss of my life, the first thing I said was full of disconcertment;

« But you don't have wings. »

And his smile. His perfect smile. I don't care about the wings if I can have that smile.

« I had. »

Terumi stepped back escaping his wings and with his human arms, he took off his vest and turned around, revealing two scars on the shoulder.  
They were huge, almost gross.  
I couldn't care less, actually. I was wondering just if I was allowed to love a human, but nothing was more important than that smile.  
I kissed him again, and again.  
I've never stopped.

_

Terumi was an Aellis.  
He was an Aellis from another Tree, another nest.  
He has been without a mate for the longest time, in his Tree, for so long he waited.  
A life. Another life. He lost the count of his years.  
He was so desperate he just descended the tree and once he was on the Ground, he was captured by a group of nomads.  
There wasn't a religion, in that area of the desert, he was just a strange slave.  
They tortured him, they took away his wings and his claws.  
Anyway, his physical pain wasn't worse than the other one.  
A few seconds later he was saved by another group of nomads. They practiced the arts of witchcraft.  
And they saved him like he was a mere human.  
He was wingless and still alive.  
He stuck with them until the group died of old age and stayed with the last one in the cave.  
She told him that Destiny has its way.  
And so he waited.  
Even after the death of the old witch, and he took her place.  
He waited.  
Until Mamori found him, looking for the witch who maybe could do something for her friend, for her god.  
Against her own faith, against her own rules, he was there to ask the witch to help, because she had an Allies who was suffering and her religion wasn't enough.  
He told her to bring the Allies to his cave soon before it was too late.  
And so she did.

_

This is my story.  
From that, it starts ours.  
I always tell our story, the bright and beautiful one.  
The one in which we return to Penumbra, the one filled with love and happiness, near my family, my people, near my love, never again in a nest of solitude.  
But this is my last story, the ugly one, with a bit of his story.  
I'll be dead soon. My love is already gone and so I have to.  
Don't be sad about me, because I can't wait to be his wings again.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't care about typos, grammar, whatever, it's like it is  
a damn birthchild  
And I should say A LOT MORE about the setting, about everything BUT  
HERE IS PAST MIDNIGHT AND I HAVE TO SLEEP  
AND TOMORROW I HAVE ANOTHER ONE FO THE AFUHIRO MONTH, SO  
BYEEEEEE
> 
> and thanks


End file.
